Sweating in the Red Sea

After an initial debut to less-than-enthusiastic crowds in St. Louis a little more than a year ago, St. Louisans Sweating Bullets appeared to have pulled a Lazerus. they have a new guitar player and a slew of new jams that play up their love for mid to late '80s crossover thrash style yet not straying too far from the original formula of their demos. In short, they have just gotten better, and have a demo CD to prove it.

Sweating Bullets began as the epilogue to My Regret, which featured a more novice sound and a muted fury that Dem Bullets have with "the amps turned up to 11."

Anywho, they played the Red Sea in the bustling Delmar Loop this past Monday and seeing as how I was off work that day and was up for drinking a bit, I headed down there with my favorite underage drinking partner and proceeded to drink our fair share and check them out.

The Red Sea is a recently closed Ethiopian place that frankly wasn't all that great (Check out Mezkerem on S. Grand if you're into that cuisine) but the club/bar downstairs is another story. It's carved out of stone. There is about 3 1/2 feet back from the foot-high stage to "mosh" around and a lot of stone tables coming out the walls. I'd wear a helmet if you're going to creepy crawl around the place.

Sweating Bullets put on a good show, though the singer, the infamous Flo Joe said his girlfriend "kicked him in the ribs" in a fight earlier that night. I bet those two make Sid and Nancy look like the Cosby couple. Young love! It didn't seem to affect the antics of the front man punks around here have come to expect. Was wild and better than the rehearsed singer poses I am getting sick of seeing. Riffs sounded good and the drums were on. File this band into the "Damn I wish I could lock them in a $1 million studio and tell them to record" category.

Other bands on the show were missed by me because of the aforementioned libations. I did, however, manage to check out D.N.A., who are from way out in St. Chuck territory. Music was loose (the opposite of tight) and punk, but the singer was doing his best Glenn Danzig impression and I have to say it kept me down there for five songs longer than I would have hung around. Here's a picture:


On an unrelated note, Pittburgh's Brain Handle played tonight at the Skullfuckeree. Was at work, though I may just go out to a bar now anyway.

playlist:
The Smiths - "John Peel Sessions."
Clipse - "Hell Hath No Fury"
Cro-Mags - "Before the Quarrel"
and a lot of
The Sword's "Age of Winters" LP